Day 1
After an 0400 rise, by 0530 just after sunrise Im packed and loaded and ready for departure.
After 100 km I have come through this. Wind, cold, but didnt catch a drop

. I open the bike up to 160 kmh to outrun the storm. So far the score is KTM 1 and Birds 0. I've had bird strikes on my head, a big one, and my head was ringing for a while. This bird was dumb enough to take on a hand guard.
I hit my first dirt by 0800. It had rained a lot the night before, the storm I came through and the road was very soft or mud. twice farmers stop to greet me and ask if Im OK in all this mud.
After that I hit the pan belt. With all the rain the pans are full of water. Too bad the sky is so grey and getting ominous
By 10 I am hitting drizzle and more mud, and stop to put in my rain liner and snack on some biltong
By noon I am in heavy rain and must get on the tar as progress on dirt is getting very slow. It is raining buckets. Every oncoming truck creates a wall of water higher than my head that i hit at a combined speed of 200 kmh. Water pours into my helmet so even wiping the visor doesnt help, down my neck, into my boots. I am like a drenched rat. Every time you try overtake you can see nothing and get another wave of water. The weather is so bad i saw 2 major pile ups. the cops closed the road; they let me through as the bike is narrow.
It got so bad I pulled into one of those stop filling stations that i despise. I had to wipe the inside of my visor and warm up a bit and ate awful american style junk food. The burger coke and chips

I was dripping puddles and totally demoralised asking myself why do I do this? Sheer misery. Another biker pulls in from the direction Im going, and like bikers always do, immediately greet each other and start chatting. I fine young man with the biker spirit to press on in bad conditions and still smile. Not one of those weekend warriors. Hhe said he just came through 4 hours of rain straight from Williston and he was shivering and as wet as me. We nodded, wished each other a safe ride, and each went our way.
This is what the dirt looked like by then
At this stage I made the decision to get off the main tar road and all the idiotic cagers causing pile ups and switched to smaller back tar roads. It was an immediate improvement to only wory about rain and not tidal waves of waver.
I was staying a fellow bikers place. he was on holiday and had the left the keys to his house for me. I kept looking at the GPS to see how much further I must endure this sodden hell. Even my underpants were soaked.
Finally as I cross the Orange river God, or Allah, or Zeus, Thor or all the gods took mercy and I see clear sky to the west for the last 100 km. I have to pull over and pay homage. I take off my helmet and tie it on the back and ride with no helmet and open jacket to dry my hair and shirt. the chance of a cop on these remote roads pulling me over for a bribe is small. I put my boots against the cylinders and pipes to dry my feet and turn on the hand grip warmers.
It is so uplifting and life in nice with the wind in your hair and moiture evaporating from every item of clothing with the bike running at a good 160 kmh. By the time I get to prieska I am mostly dry. Hot desert air does wonders.
I arrive at my mate's place in blue sky and sun.
First thing on the agenda is change into dry clothes and go into own and find a bottle store for booze.
The town looks rally scaly and the bottle store looks bad. Nothing but coloureds hanging around and going in and out. A place called Rickerd's and it is owned by chinamen
They don't speak a word of afrikaans and I speak no chinese so it is english.
Next thing on the agenda is find a place to eat. the GPS only shows me 3 options. The hoederhuis sounds too black and a place for truck drivers and whores. the liquor store can't be a nice place to get a proper meal.
So i call my lady friend and she searches the internet and sends me to a great place. There is only one problem. Because of all the rain to get there the road is underwater and i have a water crossing to do...wt all over again
The place is great, and just white farmers, who immediately start chatting to me and say did you come by bike. And then I tell them I rode over 850 km in this weather, a lot of it on dirt. There is a family there wanting to go where I want to go but the farmers advise against using that road after rain as it is very slippery. The family decides to detour by tar, and the farmers tell me to come for breakfast tomorrow and we will decide according to the weather.
I order a nice large steak and devour it. And it starts raining again. Im having visions of being stranded here with no dirt road out and only 1 tar road going the wronf way and 100s of km of detour.
I wlak out to a soaking wet bike and seat and figure here we go again. The rain and the water crossing will soak me again
My one set of jeans are now a soggy mess as well
My room looks like a tornado hit it, with wet and drying clothes strewn everywhere.
I go to bed asking myself why on earth do I have this crazy hobby of enduro riding 1000s of km by dirt. I say a prayer for God to look after me tomorrow as the next stretch is over 160 km of very slippery dirt, and almost no people live there. Maybe 1 car a day at most comes through there. So if you get stuck or crash there is only your own resources and God. There is no cell phone reception either.